Romance in the Corridors
by Snowblazehollyleafstar
Summary: When Hermione is forced to patrol the corridors with Lucius Malfoy, she's determined to hate him, and he her. But it only takes a few weeks for all of that to change... Written for the Quotey Pairing Challenge/Competition in Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges.


Written for V. Sourweather's "Quotey Pairing Challenge/Competition" from the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum. Prompts are the pairing of Lucius Malfoy/Hermione Granger and the quote "You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not." - Jodi Picoult, _My Sister's Keeper_.

* * *

Hermione reached for the handle of the compartment door, smothering her slight nervousness at the thought of beginning her new duties as a prefect. She knew she was capable of this: Professor Dumbledore wouldn't have chosen her if he hadn't believed she could do it.

She opened the door of the carriage. Nearly all of the other Prefects were already there. Hermione recognised most of those who, like her, were in their fifth year from the classes she'd shared with them.

"Miss Granger!" announced the Head Girl, a seventh-year called Lucy Abbot, from Hufflepuff. "Glad to see you here. Do sit down. I believe that's everyone?"

Hermione found a seat next to the other Gryffindor fifth-year prefect, Matthew Fawley, and listened intently as Lucy informed the fifth-year prefects of their duties, which included patrolling the train's corridors, taking House points and giving detentions where necessary, showing the first-years the way to their dormitories and supervising the decorations for holidays.

"Prefects usually patrol the corridors in shifts, two each night. I will tell you the pairs which the Headmaster has decided on this year."

Hermione hoped that she would be put with one of the Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs, with whom she had enough in common to be able to get along well with.

"Andrea Smith will be paired with Matthew Fawley, and they will patrol on Tuesday evenings."

Andrea was a Hufflepuff prefect, and a girl Hermione knew fairly well. She was mildly surprised that the pairings weren't being arranged by house.

"Hermione Granger will be paired with Lucius Malfoy, and they will patrol on Thursday evenings."

Hermione blinked. She was only just able to prevent herself from crying out in dismay. She knew Lucius fairly well – they were both members of the "Slug Club" – but strongly disliked him. He was a Slytherin and a blood-purist, and almost certain to become a follower of Lord Voldemort the moment he left Hogwarts.

He certainly wasn't going to like the idea of patrolling the corridors with a Muggle-born, and she wasn't going to enjoy patrolling with him at all.

She was so busy worrying about the implications of this decision that she didn't hear the announcement of the other two pairs, and only just managed to return her attention to the Head Girl in time to hear the rest of her duties.

That Thursday evening, Hermione walked down to the staffroom, where the prefects began their patrolling from, with a strong reluctance. She opened the door cautiously and poked her head inside, but Lucius Malfoy was not yet there, so she leant against the wall outside and waited, eyes closed, thoughts on the runes she needed to know for her upcoming O.W.L.s.

"Hello, Mudblood."

Hermione jumped and opened her eyes to see Malfoy standing right in front of her, his cold grey eyes boring into her like a drill. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. She knew what "Mudblood" meant, of course, having been called it once or twice by a couple of the Slytherins in her year, but she was still surprised that Malfoy would call her that, so close to the staffroom and all the teachers.

"Don't call me that," she said sharply, one hand reaching inside her robes for her wand, trying to control her anger. "If you call me that again I'll tell a teacher."

"Oh, will you?" asked Malfoy, voice infuriatingly mocking.

"Yes," replied Hermione, raising her voice a little.

He shot her one long, icy look and then spun on his heel and began to march down the corridor, robes billowing out behind him, leaving Hermione with no choice but to hurry after him. He didn't slow down or glance across at her once, and when she finally caught up with him, he moved to the opposite side of the corridor to her.

For the rest of the evening, as they walked, neither of them spoke to the other at all. Hermione returned to Gryffindor Tower once it was over with relief that she was finally able to get some sleep and avoid That Slytherin.

The next Thursday, Hermione was once again outside the staffroom waiting for Lucius Malfoy. She knew better what to expect this time, though, and was no longer dreading his company. If they didn't speak to each other, it was actually almost bearable.

She heard the sound of brisk footsteps coming from just around the corner, and to her surprise found herself anticipating his arrival, wondering what he would say, whether he would even acknowledge her presence.

He strode into view, dressed as impeccably as ever, a cold smile curving across his handsome face –

_No, _Hermione told herself furiously. _I did not just call Lucius Malfoy handsome!_

He did, in fact, acknowledge her, but only with a sharp little nod before they set off. Hermione couldn't help wondering whether he was walking just a little closer to her than he had before.

As they neared Gryffindor Tower, Hermione spotted a girl skulking along the edge of the corridor. She vaguely recognised her as from the year below her.

"What are you doing out of bed?" she asked, not quite angry but certainly annoyed at this blatant rule-breaking.

The girl turned around, looking a lot smaller than her age, and said, "I'm sorry – please don't tell a teacher – I just wanted to go to the library because – " She blushed. "Because this boy in my year, he left his assignment there, and I thought if I got it for him – " She broke off, blushing more furiously than ever.

Hermione had never had a boyfriend, but she knew the signs well enough. Evidently this girl had a crush on the boy in question, and he was ignoring her.

"Whatever your motives," she said, very conscious of Lucius Malfoy's eyes boring into her back, "you were still breaking the rules and so must be punished. Twenty points from Gryffindor, and a detention, to be served with me on Saturday. Now go back to your common room."

"I – yes –" said the girl, and scurried off back down the corridor.

Hermione kept walking.

"Twenty points?" asked Lucius. "I would have taken fifty."

Hermione remembered that Gryffindor were currently narrowly ahead of Slytherin in the House Cup. "That's because you favour your own House!"

"And you don't?" asked Lucius snidely. "If she had been a Slytherin, how many points would you have taken?"

Hermione had to admit that he had a point. Now, hearing it from this point of view, her immediate answer was twenty, but if she had been unable to compare at the time… would she have done the same?

Taking her silence as confirmation, Lucius smiled. "Don't criticise me for failings you share yourself."

Hermione was angry with him by now, and angry with herself for not hating him as much as she should, and so she spat "Then it's okay for me to call you a bigot who doesn't care about anything other than how many magical ancestors people have had?"

He flinched. That wasn't the reaction Hermione had been expecting (along the lines of "Nobody asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood!"). She could see that she'd genuinely hurt him with her harsh words.

Why did she feel so bad about this? She didn't care what he thought, or how she felt. She hated him, and what he said had been true. Why did it make her feel awful? Why did she want to apologise, to tell him she'd lied, to see him smile?

She knew why, in her heart, even though she didn't like it and couldn't admit it. She had fallen in love with Lucius Malfoy.

All that week, she thought about him. She wrestled with herself every night over whether to try and forget him, to do nothing, or to tell him how she felt, or… Eventually she resolved to apologise to him for what she'd said. She planned out exactly what she would say: _I'm sorry that I called you a bigot. I was angry, and it slipped out in the heat of the moment. I'm sorry._

When Thursday finally came, she was surprised to find that when she arrived at the staff room five minutes early as usual, Lucius was already there.

"I – " she started to say, but he spoke first.

"Hermione, I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry that I called you a – a Mudblood. Getting to know you has shown me that, at least in your case, purity of blood isn't what's most important. I've been watching you recently, and you don't seem any different to most pure-bloods I know. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe it doesn't make a difference."

"I wanted to apologise too," she said, wondering where this sudden rush of happiness was coming from. "I shouldn't have called you those things I did. I was angry, and…"

"It's okay," he said. "If I'm honest I probably deserved them. But I'll try and be better, I promise."

"Thank you," she told him.

From that day onwards, something significant had changed between them. Instead of walking in icy silence, staying as far away from each other as they could, they walked close together and talked about anything and everything which came to mind.

She never quite knew when they stopped being just friends and started being something more. Was it that very day when they first accepted each other? Was it two Thursdays later, when their hands touched for the first time? Was it a month later, when he gently pressed his lips to hers and she felt like they were the only two people in the world?

In some ways, it didn't really matter.

"You know," she told him one Hogsmeade weekend, when they had both overcome a slight revulsion to sit in Madam Puddifoot's tea shop and share tea for her and coffee for him, "when I was younger and I imagined being in love, I always thought whoever it was would be perfect. I'd never be able to love anyone who wasn't, I thought at the time. But that's not how it works. You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not."

"True," replied Lucius, and then he leaned across the table and kissed her.


End file.
